sample from latest pod full episode available on Apple, Spotify, etc
A selection of five eye-catching egg-chasing quotes & links from around the rugby media landscape.
“HE’S TO BE” COACH
The appointment will see Easterby in place for the 2025 Guinness Men’s Six Nations and the Men’s summer tour next year, details of which are to be confirmed.
Compared with the increasingly buoyant and eye-catching Top 14, Newcastle v Dragons or Connacht v Sale on a Friday night would hardly be a gamechanger.
One of the worst performances I’ve seen from South Africa in the first half and one of the worst performances I’ve seen from Ireland in the second. officials tried to screw us again but incredible finish
Dickson made quite a few 50-50 calls that always seemed to go in favour of the home team. From an Irish point of view, it felt almost endless.
But this happens in every game to every away team, so I don’t think it’s any particular conspiracy, it’s just the nature of sport!
Kevin Kelehan
Delighted Frawley got the chance to exorcise the ghost of Tottenham, ugly game but Farrell has built some team, 6 first choice players missing today, 5 of them in the back line and still got it done. Farrell is 80:20 win rate, Boks are 20:80 against the green machine in recent years!!
Sean MacDonnchadha
Very lucky I feel. Springboks only able to force penalties. We should’ve buried them in the first half with the energy, territory and possession we had. All the same, some balls from frawley
Paul Smith
Despite SA cheating and a horrendous performance by Dickinson, Ireland fully deserved the win and I’m absolutely delighted for Frawley who buried the memories of the Champions Cup last minute not once but twice with 2 superb drop goals.
John Willie Conroy
Osborne was unbelievable fair play to Andy Farrell for blooding. Questions need to be asked regarding Frawly not being picked at 10 at Leinster he’s a quality ball player and is head and shoulders above the Byrne brothers.
Brian Corr
So happy, what Irish team in the past could lose their starting scrum half, starting fullback, starting hooker and go to the world champions and get a result. 8 years since they’ve lost in Durban.
Delighted for Frawley to get the chance to make such a huge impact with two fantastic drop goals.
It’s said that tries win matches and that was the difference today
Take a bow Ciaran Frawley. Two outstanding kicks in the clutch. And we deserved it too. Again we were making mistakes, again SA were getting points but we stayed with them AND kept them tryless. What a way to end the season. Very happy out. #RSAvIRE
They got the rub of the green, big time, but we probably didn’t do enough.
Reasonably confident we can win 2nd if “end of season-itis” doesn’t kick in.
Gav Heg
If it was reversed, we won and the ref treated SA like he did us, rassie would release a two hour analysis slating him. The officiating simply wasn’t good enough at this level. like how can they review and disallow Lowes try but not notice the neck roll on Kelleher? Penalties were given for far less in NZ v Eng. And how was Casey stretchered off without any review from Pearse? Nonsensical and inconsistent
Greg Kelly
Is the call by the TMO to disallow Lowes try wrong in law? No…
Is the game in an absolute state if this is where it is going? Absolutely!
You can be guaranteed that in the lead up to all the tries today there were infringements but the TMO didn’t come back to those?
Even after the turnover Lowe beats 3 defenders to score so the manner of the turnover is not the material issue. It’s a great individual try called back for a debatable TMO intervention. Furthermore once the TMO comes in to disallow the try he must commit 100% to catching EVERY breakdown infringement from there. What if he let’s one go and 3 phases later there’s a kickable penalty awarded to the offending team? Does he call the referee back?
PSDT is off his feet in the field of play when he holds up Doris’ grounding attempt. By the letter of the law it’s an illegal intervention. It happens in all games and is never penalised but if we are going into the detail we did for the Lowe try then it’s another incidence of a player off feet affecting the play and consistency demands it’s flagged by the TMO.
If this is where we’re going it’s going to be a sh1t show.
Kevin Kelehan
Half back pairing was not disrupted, got reasonable parity at the breakdown. Unlucky with a few ref decisions that were 50:50 calls, particular Kelliher being driven back. Lots of industry and effort but also lots of shooting themselves in the foot. The series remains alive at only 7 points down, that is very encouraging, dust themselves down and be more clinical next week.
Sean MacDonnchadha
Have to look inward and be honest. Otherwise we’re only fooling ourselves again. Lineout and scrum came back to bite us after being highlighted as potential weaknesses. Backline stuttering for most of the game and no real director at 9/10. Felt like we were having to react to everything instead of dictating play. Dorris and Bundee tireless efforts. Ryan and Baird impacted well off the bench – only ones who did really. Needing Porter and Furlong to do a full 80 if possible is a massive system failure. Boks can’t wait to unleash their bench, if we’re honest we fear what will happen when we do.
Cuan Mulligan
In the first half, Kolisi was tackled, in the breakdown the ball is coming back to us and he sweeps the ball back with his hand.. not hard to see yet no tmo call. It felt like they were going out of their way to not give us a call
James Lowe had a very good game overall.
Did plenty right.
Had every right to try and keep the touch kick alive.
Also would have been risky to let that restart bounce.
This is hardly some new insight but a key issue with some of Ireland (and Leinster's) performances recently: everyone just looks exhausted. Some of these guys have been playing rugby without more than a few weeks off now for two years, and it just shows.
Hell of a test match. The fact these 46 players give a spectacle like that after 12 months of rugby is outstanding. Fine margins but congrats to the Springboks. Deserved winners in the end . Ireland went down swinging. Super match 👏 #RSAvIRE
So so good at times, but also so so poor at other, crucial times. Silly mistakes, silly penalties. Boks made errors too and we def didnt have rub of the green with TMO but the 7 pts we fell short by were on us. Be tough to pick it up for next week but try we must. #RSAvIRE
JLP : Not the first time news of a move involving Irish and French clubs gets leaked via the French press so the details have been sketchy. While this article suggests Slimani is on a two year deal, Ruairidh O’Connor from the Indo tweeted that it might be just one, which would seem to make more sense given his age profile. Straw poll among a few Leinster fans seems to have the reaction as “meh” to this news, possibly a step down in standards from Michael Ala’alatoa, but at least it means we’ll have some tight head cover for Furlong and Tom Clarkson, who I hope gets some starting game time at the start of the 24/25 campaign.
“He’s got a great torpedo as well, a spiral which is very old school, I love a spiral, that’s why he’s picked.”
JLP : I’ve said this before that Sam P probably won’t get much game time down in South Africa, yet still the experience of being on tour with the senior squad will stand to him as many are saying he has a high ceiling. And by “many” I mean coaches who have actually seen him play and train on a regular basis, as opposed to those ABLs online who like to exaggerate the hype about him (“Way too soon to say he is the Messiah” etc etc when actually nobody has actually done that.)
The squad features 22 forwards and 17 backline players, with Erasmus set to name the captain for the competition closer to the Ireland Test.
JLP : The Springboks are very very VERY keen to win this series. Back to back RWCs apparently aren’t enough to scratch the itch we’ve caused by winning our recent encounters. Of course what with the URC and all it’s good for there to be a healthy rivalry between these two nations and I’m all for it, looking forward to some online exchanges on social media over the coming weeks.
“…the thing I’ve discovered in rugby celebrations is that you need goggles to protect yourself from all the champagne spray”
JLP : First up as ever it’s important to specify for those who may not know that “The Scotsman” is the name of a newspaper, in that line above I’m not trying to suggest that I believe Graham Bean to be THE Scotsman…
Seriously though, happy to share an article checking in on the Glasgow celebrations, obviously I’d prefer if it could be Leinster but like I have said several times the Warriors were indeed worthy champions.
My favourite bit of celebratory fun has to be this pic shared by Jamie Bhatti. Bit disrespectful to their hosts? Maybe. But given the sign is there to intimidate, does that make it fair game when you win there? Too fucking right.
Groundbreaking AI technology has unveiled its jaw-dropping forecasts for the next four decades of Six Nations glory, and the results are nothing short of mind-blowing.
JLP : Normally the point of my weekly “Clickbait of the Week” award is to show an article that is being misleading to get you to click so I don’t actually include the link itself. Since this week’s offering involves what is clearly a typo, I will break this rule and just to be clear the screengrab I took was from Tuesday lunchtime so it’s very possible they may have fixed it.
To be fair, if the 2025 Six Nations did finish like that, it WOULD be a shock.
WRAP OF A WRAP
No wrap this week but I did do a spot of harpin’ on Caolán Scully’s pod, going back over Leinster’s season wasn’t exactly an easy task but I always enjoy an aul egg-chasing chat regardless and it is worth checking out.
QUICK TAP : URC = THE BEST LEAGUE
Super Rugby may be “super”
Premiership Rugby may be “premier”
and the 🔝🐱🐴 may be “top”
but given the on-field product amid
all it’s numerous off-field challenges,
The URC is still the best.
(and remember that’s coming from a fan of one of the 13 clubs yet to win it)
Below are the links used in screengrabs for the video.
Can’t believe I’ve had this Troll Patrol feature going for a few weeks and there is yet to be a Welsh contributor! But if there was ever going to be a Welsh contributor it was always going to be Phil, he’s the best of the bunch. Never misses an opportunity to have a pop at Leinster or Ireland, and the only positive from his latest series of posts is that they are not accompanied by a screengrab of the IRFU spending which he seems to collect religiously year on year.
The post above I chose is a response to a tweet I sent just after full time in the URC final – I mean, having seen Phil’s work for several years I actually understand the point he is trying to make but still he is so obsessed with a desire to view Irish rugby negatively that he doesn’t see that the priority chart he outlines here actually makes sense for any organisation!!! I would have thought test rugby > Champions Cup > URC was the proper order of things but then again he’d probably rather see all the attention of the rugby world going to Llandovery v Carmarthen Quins…
SUPERB. Glasgow thoroughly deserved that. Congrats to all. Worthy champions.
Three seasons. Three different winners. Three different nations.
If you ever see an online contribution that seems worthy of inclusion here, by all means do share.
“SVNS” UPDATE
The draw was made for the Olympic pools…the press are saying it’s a tricky one for both Irish teams but I reckon we should fancy our chances of reaching the knockouts in each case, we’re certainly not underdogs anymore.
Hamburg is the destination this week for the second and final round of the Rugby
HAMBURG 7s
FRI JUNE 28
10AM – WOMEN V CZECHIA
12:14PM – MEN V CROATIA
2:44PM – WOMEN V FRANCE
5:14PM – MEN V BELGIUM
SAT JUNE 29
9:36AM – WOMEN V PORTUGAL
9:44AM – MEN V PORTUGAL
🔝🐱🐴 UPDATE
All we have seen over the past few weeks is a media inquest over what’s wrong with Leinster…now to be fair, three successive seasons falling Champions Cup final and URC semifinals does merit that scrutiny by our standards, but how about the standards at La Rochelle, who also got to domestic SFs but only made it to last 8 in Europe? And they lost a hell of a lot more times throughout the season than Leinster did. Funny, that.
Anyway…under normal circumstances I would be shouting for Bordeaux in Friday’s final but apparently a Toulouse win will give Leinster a top seed in the Champions Cup draw so allez les noir et rouges!!!!! Still would be too gutted if UBB took it, to be honest.
PLAYOFFS
TOULON 29-34 LA ROCHELLE
BORDEAUX 31-17 RACING 92
RELEGATION
GRENOBLE 18-20 MONTPELLIER
SEMIFINALS
TOULOUSE V LA ROCHELLE
STADE FRANÇAIS V BORDEAUX
FINAL
FRI JUNE 28
TOULOUSE V BORDEAUX
SUPER RUGBY PACIFIC UPDATE
Not much to say here except congrats to the Blues, their first title in a long time and what better time to do it when the Crusaders have disappeared. All a very ‘meh’ campaign however what with the NZ franchises dominating yet again and with the Rebels gone it will make the 11-team tournament (most likely still with 8 reaching the knockouts) start to look almost as bad as the Premiership.
QUARTERFINALS
CHIEFS 43-21 REDS
HURRICANES 47-20 REBELS
BLUES 36-5 FIJIAN DRUA
BRUMBIES 32-16 HIGHLANDERS
SEMIFINALS
BLUES 34-20 BRUMBIES
HURRICANES 19-30 CHIEFS
FINAL
BLUES 41-10 CHIEFS
MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY UPDATE
Finally got a chance to catch a full MLR game this season, I suppose Leinster’s lack of fixture last weekend gave me the free time…ANYWAY thanks to the free service by the Rugby Network I checked out my latest adopted team Chicago Hounds who have Dave Kearney, Nick McCarthy and Luke Carty in their ranks but in the end it was two later tries from Dylan Fawsitt, who was hooker for Blackrock College in their Jordi Murphy-led Leinster Schools Cup winning side in 2009 before going stateside a few years later, that won the day for Chicago.
I have to say it was a very entertaining match – Anthem RC, an expansion team based in Charlotte, North Carolina, had lost all their previous 14 matches but while the result was expected, it was by no means certain until Fawsitt’s second try in the 73rd minute. The lead changed hands several times as Anthem tried to win for the home crowd but in the end Chicago’s superior territory game won out. They are now guaranteed a playoff spot but can finish no higher than third and need to beat Miami in the final round next weekend to ensure that.
Elsewhere there were some interesting results at the top of both conferences. NOLA defeated New England at home which meant if the seedings hold that would make for a fascinating Eastern final while in the west, San Diego bounced back from last week’s defeat in Chicago to topple runaway leaders Houston, and although it looks like they won’t be able to win by enough points against Seattle next weekend to overtake them in 2nd spot, they can still do enough damage to show they can beat them when they definitely meet in knockout rugby a week later.
ROUND 17
NOLA GOLD 27-17 NEW ENGLAND
ANTHEM RC 29-38 CHICAGO
MIAMI 17-12 OLD GLORY
UTAH 50-46 DALLAS
SEATTLE 29-12 LOS ANGELES
SAN DIEGO 37-24 HOUSTON
ROUND 18
UTAH V LOS ANGELES
NEW ENGLAND V ANTHEM
CHICAGO V MIAMI
OLD GLORY V NOLA GOLD
HOUSTON V DALLAS
SAN DIEGO V SEATTLE
HARPIN PREDICTION LEAGUE
I was considering gambling on Glasgow but with the risk of dropping to 7th I played it safe for the final, and as it turned out we all did so there was no change in the final standings. Kristian as you can see has quite rightly shown pride in his prolific prediction prowess.
As for Keego, he must now not only retain the Jersey of Shame but also don it for another selfie which I will post all over the Harpin network as the League rules demand.
Next season I hope to expand the league to at least 10, with the possibility of a cup competition thrown in for good measure, we shall see.
The Triple Crown complete – the @HarpinOnRugby Rugby World Cup, Six Nations and now the URC predictors all sitting perfectly on the metaphorical mantelpiece. Commiserations to @RugbyKino, a hell of a competitor. Look forward to sitting down tonight like this… pic.twitter.com/qvtQI4v1JD
Slowly getting back into the swing of things after a short break…as if there hasn’t been enough rugby in South Africa for us to harp on, there’s loads more to come what with the Irish tour and the World Under 20s – I have a preview pod for the Wolfpuppies to be posted on Friday and then on Monday evening I’m assembling another “all-provincial panel” to look ahead to Ireland’s chances against the Springboks. Be sure to keep up with all our social media channels with the usual amount of commenting, sharing, liking & subscribing.
And as ever, be sure to enjoy your rugby wherever you are. JLP
